Layoffs to hit Ajax and Pickering hospital

Service and patient volume to remain same as hospital faces economic realities: spokesman

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AJAX -- The effects of the Province's new health-care funding formula are being felt at Rouge Valley Ajax and Pickering hospital as hospital staff received notice of coming layoffs.

"This is very preliminary," said David Brazeau, director of public affairs, community relations and telecommunications for Rouge Valley Health System.

"We're still working on the areas that will be affected as well as numbers, we're taking every action to minimize the impact on our staff as much as we did a couple years ago when we focused on reducing the debt. We're going to be looking at early retirement and filling vacant job positions with displaced staff to cut down the number of layoffs required."

Mr. Brazeau attributed the layoffs partly to the Province's Action Plan for Health Care. Released in February, the plan introduced funding changes that saw up to 70 per cent of annual funding to hospitals become variable based on the number of patients served, with higher-performing facilities rewarded with more funding. This constituted a big change from the previous model, where more than 90 per cent of annual funding was fixed.

Mr. Brazeau and RVHS CEO Rik Ganderton addressed municipal councils throughout the region over the summer to discuss the effects of the new funding model, noting that layoffs could be possible as a result of decreased funding.

"We wanted people to know the severity of the impacts of the global recession and all the things we were going to have to do," Mr. Brazeau explained.

"It's a difficult message to go around with because there's a difficult medicine that goes along with it. At the time we didn't know exactly how it would work out and we're getting to that now, we're see the impacts now."

Mr. Brazeau points to successful efforts to reduce a long-standing deficit in 2008, which also resulted in layoffs, as an example that RVHS executives are adept at dealing with this type of situation without impacting hospital services.

"We're organizing the hospital program to provide maximum quality programs within the economic realities we face," Mr. Brazeau explained. "No programs or services are going to be consolidated or moved at this time, but we are exploring how things might be moved in the future."

Mr. Brazeau said the memo to staff members informing them of pending layoffs was a preliminary measure since collective bargaining agreements require notices be sent to staff before anyone can be switched to vacant positions. He expects official notices to be sent in January. Both the Ajax and Pickering hospital and Scarborough Centenary site will be affected.